Zalando says it saw a new high when more than a billion visits were made to its site in the third quarter of its current financial year – showing, it said, that customers “gravitate” to it when they think about fashion.
The milestone was reached as traffic to the pan-European fashion website and marketplace grew by 37% during a quarter in which shoppers spent €1.5bn (£1.3bn) with it. That’s 26.7% up on a year earlier. Most came via mobile devices, which accounted for 84.8% of site visits, up by 4.8 percentage points from 80% a year earlier. Some 29.5m active customers (+17.5%) placed 34.7m orders (+25.4%).
Zalando’s aim is to be the starting point for fashion in Europe – the Berlin-based business sells in 17 countries including the UK – and sales growth was particularly fast in Spain, the Nordics and in the Czech Republic, where, said Zalando, business has grown quickly since it launched in that market a year ago. It will expand its Zalando Lounge member cub to the Czech Republic in the coming quarter.
However, at the bottom line, net income came in at -€13.6m (-£11.5m), from -€41.7m (-£35.4m) a year earlier. In the full-year, however, it expects to see earnings before interest and tax come in at between €175m (£148.5m) and €225m (£190.94).
David Schröder, chief financial officer at Zalando, said: “2019 has been a very successful year for us so far. We had a strong third quarter with more active customers who more and more frequently look for inspiration on Zalando. We are growing at a high pace across all regions. We want to maintain the momentum for a strong finish to the year and look forward to celebrating together with our customers the upcoming Cyber Week and the festive season.”
Zalando has pledged to become carbon neutral in its own operations, deliveries and returns, while offering customers more sustainable styles and products.
Image courtesy of Zalando
